FARMER’S ALMANAC:
1st – 3rd, Plant seedbeds and flower gardens. Fine for planting beans, tomatoes, corn, cotton, cucumbers, peppers, melons, and other aboveground crops where climate allows.
4th – 8th, Clear ground, turn sod, kill plant pests.
9th – 10th, Fine for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. Favorable days for root crops.
11th – 12th, Start seedbeds. Good days for transplanting. Plant carrots, turnips, onions, beets, potatoes, and other root crops in the South. Lettuce and other leafy vegetables will also do well.
13th – 14th, Poor planting days. Good harvest days.
15th – 17th, Any root crops that can be planted now will do well.
When to tap a tree for collecting sap for making syrup. I have not found any specific days at this point, but will continue to look. Here’s some of the information I have found, plus based upon the full moons, I would guess that there should be good sap flow (weather permitting) during the last week of February and March 12 -20.
Maple trees are tapped when temperatures alternate between freezing and thawing. Nighttime temperatures must drop below freezing (in the 20’s), and daytime temperatures must reach 40 to 50 degrees. Before winter, the maple trees store starch in their trunks and roots, which gets converted into sugar. As spring nears, the sap thaws and the sugar in the sap rises up in the tree. You need cold nights to make “sugarers” happy, so unseasonably warm winters aren’t good for the harvest. What happens when it’s not the right temperature? Well, some seasons are good, some aren’t. Agriculture’s not for wimps! We weather the ups and downs.
I also found it interesting that there are a number of trees that can be tapped for syrup. Some of these will offer slightly different “tastes”, but the article said they are all good. Hmmmm …..
MAPLES: Sugar, Bigleaf, Black, Boxelder, Big Tooth, Douglas, Greene’s, Norway, Red, Rocky Mountain, Silver
WALNUTS: Black, Butternut/White, English, Heartnut
BIRCH: White, Black, Gray, Paper, River, Yellow
AND EVEN THESE: Sycamore, Sweetgum, Shagbark Hickory and Tulip Poplar
~Gary Shafer, ISP Technologies, Inc., Research and Development
Thanks, Humdeedee! That’s interesting that other trees besides sugar maples can be tapped. We have sycamore, tulip poplar, and probably shagbark hickory in the area. I know for sure we have pignut hickory.
Nice. Your knowledge is, well...really grounding :) .